Plot summary

Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) is an unsympathetic marketing salesman, whose drinking and roving eye causes him to lose deals. When his estranged wife angrily calls him about missing his daughter Mia's third birthday party because he is too busy with his work, Joe angrily defends himself by saying that a three-year-old wouldn't care if he came or not. After shouting a lot of verbal abuse at his wife, he goes on a binge of drinking, vomiting and passing out, finally ending up at the bar of his old friend Chucky (Michael Imperioli). Chucky, however, refuses to let him enter in his intoxicated state. Joe sees a Korean lady with a yellow umbrella selling toys on the street, and buys a toy duck for his daughter. When Chucky exits his bar, he finds the toy on the pavement, with no sign of Joe.Joe wakes up in a small hotel room, where he is held captive. He is fed (primarily Chinese food) and provided for, but denied human contact. Every once in a while, the room is gassed so that his captors can intervene while he is unconscious. In his solitude, Joe has frequent hallucinations, and makes friends with a mouse, only to have it served to him for his next meal. Joe is allowed to watch television, and one day he sees a news broadcast that tells him that his wife has been brutally raped and murdered. Forensic evidence was lifted from him and planted on the crime scene, making him the prime suspect. Joe is devastated, but unable to do anything about it. Over the years, he learns from a crime show on TV that his daughter has been adopted by another couple, and that she has moved on with her life, becoming a celebrated cello player. Joe decides to better himself in his cell. He works out, and writes letters to his daughter, should he ever escape his prison. He carves lines in his arms for every year of imprisonment, and also makes a list of people who could be responsible for his current predicament. All the time, he is watched on camera by a man called Chaney (Samuel L. Jackson).After 20 years, Joe makes plans to escape, but is suddenly gassed and released. He wakes up with a cell phone with his daughter's picture and a countdown timer. He sees the street vendor with the umbrella who sold him the duck (or so he thinks) and chases after her, using his new physical fitness to beat up members of a football team who think he was harrassing her. Following the trail, he meets Marie Sebastian (Elizabeth Olsen), a nurse who takes care of homeless people, who senses there's something wrong with him, but he won't open up to her. She gives him her card just in case he ever needs help.He returns to his friend Chucky's bar and tells his story. He's then called by an anonymous man, who says Joe can earn forgiveness. With Chucky's help, Joe starts researching all the people he's wronged to see if he can find his captor, such as his former boss or old associates, but no one qualifies. When Joe passes out again, Chucky find's Marie's number, and she comes over to help. She finds the stack of letters Joe has written to his daughter Mia, and starts to read them. Joe wakes up and is infuriated, stating that the letters were only meant for his daughter. Mia, a former drug addict, takes pity on his situation, and agrees to help him.Joe starts sampling Chinese food at area restaurants, trying to find the same dumplings he lived on for years. After identifying the correct restaurant, he sees a man picking up a large order and follows him, armed only with a claw hammer. He locates the prison and gains entry after killing a few guards. He finds Chaney and tortures him by cutting pieces of flesh from his neck, only to find out Chaney is merely the caretaker of the facility that holds many people. Chaney gives Joe a tape with the voice of the man who ordered Joe's imprisonment. On his way out, Joe fights off numerous guards and passes out from his wounds, only to be rescued by a mysterious stranger who drops him off back at Chucky's.Joe recovers and gets another call from the stranger, who taunts him a bit further. Afterwards, Joe notices that the call was not blocked, and calls back: the recipient is one of the clients in Chucky's bar, accompanied by a female bodyguard. Joe furiously attacks, but the bodyguard subdues him. The stranger is a man called Adrian (Sharlto Copley), who challenges Joe to find out who he is and why he had Joe imprisoned. Adrian offers him proof of Adrian's involvement in the murder of Joe's wife, a fully signed confession and a suitcase full of diamonds if Joe succeeds. Most importantly, Adrian will bring Joe to his daughter, and then kill himself if Joe finds out the truth. He then leads Joe to Marie's house, where Chaney's gang is ready to violently rape her. They beat up Joe, but before Chaney can start torturing him, Adrian gives him a call, and pays him off.Marie is badly shaken, but still determined to help. She uses a Shazam app to find out that the ringtone of Joe's phone is the anthem of his old prep school. Suspecting that the old school is key to solving the riddle, she and Joe leave by car, but Adrian keeps close watch on them.Joe and Marie track down Edwina Burke (Linda Emond), the headmistress of Joe's old prep school. While Marie distracts her, Joe sneaks into the apartment. Marie tries to convince Ms Burke that Joe may be innocent, and someone from his old school may try to frame him for the murder of his wife. She learns that Joe met his future wife at the school, but that he was a very selfish student, so he may have made some enemies there. Joe finds Adrian's name and picture in a yearbook, proving that he was in the same year as Joe and Chucky. The school is closed now, but all the paperwork is still there. Joe and Marie go there, but find the gate locked, so they decide to come back later in the evening.In the meanwhile, Chucky does some internet searching, and learns that Adrian once had a hospital built in dedication to his dead sister. Suddenly remembering something, he calls Joe and leaves a message, stating that it is all about "the whore". Unfortunately, Adrian intercepts the message. Enraged by how Chucky calls his sister, he goes over to the bar and kills Chucky.Joe and Marie go into a motel to tend after Joe's wounds, and they end up making love. They are unaware that Adrian watches via a camera. That evening, Joe and Marie break into the prep school, finding evidence that Adrian and his sister enrolled there. After hearing Chucky's message, Joe remembers that in his bullying days, he used to harrass Adrian's sister. Later, during a school party, he witnessed Adrian's sister having sex with a man in the garden. He simply assumed it was a teacher at the school, and had mentioned the girl's promiscuous reputation to Chucky. In the school's library, Joe and Marie research newspaper articles. Apparently, Adrian and his wealthy family moved to Luxemburg within a year, where a great tragedy happened that killed the entire family, but left Adrian severely wounded. Joe identifies the man who was having sex with Adrian's sister as the girl's own father. Outside the prep school, Joe and Marie find a box in their car, which contains Chucky's severed tongue. Shocked, they return to the motel. Joe received a picture on his phone of Mia, badly bruised. Joe leaves Marie in safety, and leaves to confront Adrian, despite Marie's pleas not to go.Joe goes to Adrian and after a short fight with his bodyguard (whom he kills), he tells Adrian that he solved his riddle: Adrian blames Joe for the tragedy that befell his family, and therefore imprisoned him. It wasn't until this evening that Joe realized that the sex scandal involved an incestuous relation. Adrian responds that it runs even deeper than that: his beloved father was a pedophile who had separate sexual relationships with both him and his sister. They were very happy with it, but when the sex scandal spread throughout the school, the sister's reputation was destroyed, so they were forced to move to Luxemburg. Finally, the father killed his wife, daughter and himself, leaving Adrian severely wounded. Adrian says that he lost everything as a consequence of Joe's actions, but keeps his promise and takes Joe to see Mia.Joe learns that the crime show he saw on TV during his imprisonment was staged, and shown only to him. The 'Mia' he saw in that show is a professional actress, recruited by Adrian from a young age (even the last picture of her bruised face was faked). Joe is furious and physically assaults Adrian, forcing him to take him to his real daughter. Adrian simply comments that Joe never asked the right question: instead of asking why he was imprisoned, he should have asked why he was set free. Adrian then continues to show pictures of the real Mia. Adrian had made sure that she was raised after her mother's death, and grew up as Marie! He staged everything so that she would get addicted and develop a father complex, so that when she met Joe, she would take pity on him, finally culminating in the two having sex as a torture to Joe.Joe is devastated by the news, as Adrian picks up his phone in order to call Marie. Joe pleads with Adrian not to reveal the information to Marie, instead offering himself to Adrian to do as he pleases. Adrian simply states that he has no desire to kill Joe, since he has Joe exactly in the position where he always wanted him, so that he could feel Adrian's pain. With his revenge complete, Adrian shoots himself.Joe uses Adrian's diamonds to try and make things right - with Marie/Mia and even Chaney, offering him money and arranging to be re-imprisoned. Joe sends Marie a letter along with some of the diamonds and the duck toy, stating that he has done something terrible; she should forget about him and try to find her happiness again. Joe finds himself back in his old prison, with a mysterious grimace on his face. End.